


My Valentine

by Lexen (bluedragoninamber)



Series: Winter Roses:  A Cottage for My Albus/Minerva Stories [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, Minerva and Severus acting like siblings, Mutual Pining, Pre-Canon, Requited Love, Severus as matchmaker, Unrequited Love, Valentine's Day Ball, Valentine's Day Fluff, before Harry Potter comes to Hogwarts, repost
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-15
Updated: 2019-08-15
Packaged: 2020-09-01 18:58:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20262940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluedragoninamber/pseuds/Lexen
Summary: Minerva McGonagall has pined after Albus Dumbledore for too long, and Severus Snape finally decides to do something about it.





	My Valentine

**Author's Note:**

> Please Read: This story is mine. I am the original and only author. It was first posted on FFN more than five years ago. I don’t remember exactly when. I took all my stories down off the internet and left the HP fandom due to personal reasons. I am now returning to the fandom and reposting some of my old stories. When I posted these stories on FFN, my penname was Lexen (and sometimes Hope4astalemate and bluedragoninamber) though I usually went by Lex. To repeat, this story is mine. Please don’t claim I have stolen it from someone else. Also, please don’t ask me to repost a particular story. I will be reposting only those stories which I choose to repost, and I will only be reposting them here.

** Disclaimer ** **: I don’t own it, and I am making no money off of it. **

** AN ** **: This story is AU, and it takes place a few years before Harry Potter comes to Hogwarts. The relationship between Minerva and Severus here is meant to be that of platonic siblings (they see themselves as siblings though they are not blood related), not romantic partners. The romantic pairing is Albus/Minerva. **

Minerva really hated balls. She always ended up a chaperone, and Albus expected everyone to attend anyway. Minerva always put on her same green formal robes and spent the evening wandering the edges of the floor, nudging students apart from each other and taking turns with Severus blasting the bushes outside to separate over-eager teenage couples. Of course, she and Severus were obligated to take a turn or two on the dance floor themselves, but they both found it absurdly funny. The most they managed was a brother-sister sort of waltz that left the two of them perilously close to breaking their stern demeanors by laughing out loud.

Severus, though decades her junior, knew far too well that Minerva spent the balls pining after the man that she thought she could never have. They’d gotten drunk together one night, he and Minerva, and her loosened tongue had admitted that she had fallen and fallen hard for Albus Dumbledore. The next morning, in between headache and sobering potions, she’d sworn him to secrecy about that. He’d agreed only reluctantly and regretted it ever since. Albus treated Minerva with paternal affection, and year after year, Severus saw Minerva’s love for Albus grow more hopeless.

He finally decided that he was going to intervene whether Minerva liked it or not. Severus simply couldn’t bear to let the woman he loved like an older sister become any more miserable. But to do that, he would have to convince the lioness herself to do something to get Albus’s attention.

“You know that you have to, Min,” Severus said later that evening over tea in her sitting room. “Albus is a good man, but he is utterly innocent when it comes to relationships. You’ve got to do something to make him sit up and take notice. It’s not as if you don’t have the looks for it.” Severus attempted a leer but didn’t quite manage it and succeeded only in making Minerva laugh and relax.

“Why thank you, Severus, it’s comforting to know that such a discerning man as you can find an old carcass like mine attractive.” The words were sarcastic, but Severus read the underlying emotion behind them without difficulty.

“Min, you know as well as I do that you are a beautiful woman. You’re going to have to embrace that if this is going to work,” Severus said.

Minerva sighed. “It just seems like, after so many years, Albus would have done something to show his interest if he was really interested in me.”

Severus gave her a small smile. “I suspect that Albus may have the same reservations about you that you have about him.” He paused, offering the bait that he knew the lioness could not resist. “But you’ll never know until you try.”

That did the trick. Severus watched with satisfaction as Minerva squared her shoulders and sat up. Her green eyes shone with calculated interest. 

“What do you suggest?”

Severus smirked. “Oh, it won’t be that complicated. A few carefully selected gifts…you know how he is when it comes to getting presents.”

Minerva smiled. Severus was right. Albus at Christmas was a sight to see, and she knew where she could get a large supply of lemon drops and pairs of horribly tacky socks.

“And what else?” she asked.

Severus eyed her coolly. “The Valentine ball is coming up, and you, my dear sister, need to find an outfit that will so ensnare Albus that he won’t be able to let you go.”

Minerva paled. “Severus, I detest shopping.”

Severus chuckled. “Who said anything about shopping? Come now, you are a mistress of transfiguration, and I happen to have been subjected one too many times to Narcissa Malfoy’s shopping trips. I think, between the two of us, we can manage to create the perfect outfit for you.”

Minerva groaned.

On Valentine’s Day, Albus’s morning started off well, and his day just seemed to get better. There was a large bag of his favorite lemon drops by his plate. He happened to notice that Minerva was missing, but Severus explained that she had needed to speak privately with a student. Albus shrugged and turned back to his unknown admirer’s gift. 

And the gifts didn’t stop there. When he returned to his office, he found several pairs of mismatched, multi-colored socks, just the kind he liked to wear. Albus was delighted and began to hope that his secret admirer would make themselves known at the ball. At lunch, there was another bag of lemon drops. He couldn’t help but notice that Minerva was absent again, and Severus was gone this time too. None of the rest of the staff seemed to know where they were.

Albus was not the suspicious type, but he was beginning to wonder if his lovely deputy might be behind the gifts. Had Severus helped her? The two of them were as close as siblings and fought like brother and sister, and he wouldn’t put it past Severus to run interference for Minerva.

That thought brought another one, a very pleasant thought indeed. What if Minerva really was…interested in him? He’d pined for her from the moment she’d taken up her professorship, but he’d been sure that she’d never give a moment’s thought to an old man like him. Was it possible he was wrong?

A midafternoon trip to his office as the school thrummed with anticipation for the ball offered one more gift. He had always adored the fanciful, magical, candy-coated world of muggle Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and a beautifully-illustrated hardback copy of the book was sitting on his desk.

The only people he had ever mentioned his adoration of that book to were Minerva and Severus. Albus picked up the book lovingly and went away humming to get ready for the ball…and the woman who he hoped against hope would soon find her way into his arms.

Meanwhile, Minerva was grimacing at her reflection in her mirror as Severus looked on fondly. 

“You really don’t think it’s too…revealing?” she asked for the fifth time in an hour.

Severus sighed. Stern professor Minerva might be, but she was definitely female.

“Min, this is the last time I will say this. It is not too revealing. Frankly, it’s about time people realized how beautiful you really are.” He was practiced at offering compliments, but, in Minerva’s case, he meant them. 

Minerva smiled wanly at him. “It’s just that it’s red, and I have never worn red before. I haven’t worn a neckline this low or a bodice this tight since I was a teenager. Surely, I don’t still have the body…”

He silenced her with the ease of long practice with his “professor voice” as she called it. It had always amused him that, though she had never been his student (rather he had been hers), she reacted to it as if she was his student, complying immediately.

“Minerva, that is enough. You look more than appropriate. Now, the ball has already begun, and we are due in the Great Hall.” He reached out, smoothing her unbound hair, touched liberally with silver but still very beautiful. “You look lovely. Come…Albus is waiting.”

She blushed, took his arm, and as they walked out, Severus thought to himself that Albus had better be waiting…either that or he would give Albus a piece of his mind.

For once, neither Albus nor the house elves had gone overboard with the Valentine ball decorations. If the decorations weren’t quite tasteful, they weren’t tacky either, and Severus wondered whether Albus had been too busy musing over his secret admirer to overdo the decorations like he usually did. 

The ball was in full swing when Minerva and Severus entered. Normally, their entrance wouldn’t have garnered much attention. But two things were different this time. Severus swung Minerva immediately out onto the dance floor, and Minerva bore little resemblance to the prim and proper professor that she had been just a few hours ago. She wore a dress of deep red velvet with a neckline that, while not being indecent, expertly molded to her slender curves. The bodice hugged her body, and the skirt swept the floor as she spun in Severus’s arms. Her hair was the biggest surprise of all. It was loose and tumbling down her back, and the students were shocked to realize that it was not permanently frozen into the bun that they’d never seen her without. Silver-tinged strands fell around her face, and her skin was flushed from the movement and her smile. Minerva McGonagall was smiling in public, and many students resolved on the spot to send owls home the next day to tell their siblings and parents of the momentous occasion.

But the best moment was yet to come.

Albus Dumbledore stood as frozen as the cupid ice statue standing by the refreshment table, staring at his deputy as though he had never seen her before. The students and staff took one look at his expression, looked again at Professor McGonagall, and realized that the headmaster had finally found a Valentine of his own…if she felt the same. The room seemed to hold its collective breath as Albus finally managed to move, crossing the dance floor in a moment to glide up beside Severus who immediately swept Minerva to an elegant stillness.

“Would you mind, Severus, if I cut in and claimed a dance with this lovely lady?” Albus asked, and Minerva saw the shadow of fear in his blue eyes, clearly worried that he had still, after all this, misjudged her intentions.

Then Severus smiled, a momentous event in and of itself, which caused more than one student to gasp.

“You may only as long as you treat her well.” He gave the headmaster his best professor glare. “I will be watching.”

All eyes turned to Minerva. “I’d love to,” she said clearly, blushing again as Severus kissed her cheek, bowed to her as she curtsied to him, and handed her gently into Albus’s arms.

She looked up at Albus at last. “I hope you enjoyed your gifts.”

Albus smiled. “In the end, I knew it had to be you. At least, I hoped it was you. I wished for it to be you.”

“For how long?” Minerva asked, settling herself into Albus’s strong embrace.

“Since the day you became a professor,” he admitted. “It’s just that I was so old…”

She placed a finger on his lips. “I know. And I thought you thought I was too young.”

As the music slowed, Albus drew her close. “I think we need to make up for lost time.”

Minerva’s response was swallowed up by a sweet, tender kiss.


End file.
